Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurogenerative disorder that is characterized by pathological rhythmic neuronal oscillations that lead to symptoms such as tremor and bradykinesia. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) systems may be used to apply stimulation to provide symptom relief. For example, for PD, stimulation may be applied to a region in the basal ganglia, such as the subthalamic nucleus or global pallidus internus. In at least some known DBS devices, stimulation is applied using a train of individual pulses at a fixed frequency and pulse width.
At least some known DBS devices (and other stimulation devices) include an implantable pulse generator (IPG) and at least one stimulation lead coupled to the IPG. The IPG includes a header that includes conductors for making electrical connections to the at least one stimulation lead. The header may also include an antenna that facilitates communication between the IPG and an external device (e.g., a patient or clinician programmer). When manufacturing the header, to ensure proper functionality of the IPG, required spacing between internal electrical conductors (e.g., wires, ribbons, antennas, blocks, rings, etc.) must be maintained. However, this may be difficult using at least some known manufacturing methods.